166: [Case Study] Behind the Launch of Heather Leicy’s Tax Course for Photographers

 Dolly Delong: Hey everyone. And welcome back to another episode of the systems that workflow magic podcast. I am your systems workflow and launching guide, Dolly DeLong. And today I’m so excited and thrilled to have a repeat guest on the podcast, Heather, I’m going to do a little introduction on Heather, and then we will get started.

So Heather is a talented photographer and the creator of the photographer tax course. Heather’s journey into photography began with a deep personal moment at her own wedding when she realized the true power of Photography to capture life’s most cherished memories as she danced with her husband surrounded by friends and family Heather noticed her photographer capturing every emotion every connection.

And so in that moment Heather knew photography washow she wanted to capture life’s moments for future generations. And so she herself is a wedding photographer and she also is. A tax educator for photographers as well. So she has, been using her own expertise in running her wedding photography business, which has grown tremendously in the past several years.

Now she’s taking her knowledge of how to run the back end of your business when it comes to financial systems and tax systems. And she teaches other photographers how to Run a better photography business and make sure that taxes don’t suck you dry along the way. So Heather, I am so excited to have you back on.

Do you mind doing a little, bit more of a introduction just in case people are brand new to meeting you?

Heather Leicy: Sure. Thanks for that intro. Yes, I’m Heather. I’m a wedding and senior photographer based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And like Dolly said, I somehow have a love of numbers and a love of taxes. And so I love just helping others prepare for tax season throughout the year. So it’s not as stressful at the end of the year, but a little bit more about me outside of my business, I am a wife of an incredible husband and we have a little girl who’s 19 months old, which is crazy.

He is like talking and has a personality. And so my days are basically mommy in the morning until lunchtime and then she goes down for a nap and that’s my work time, but I have just loved watching her grow and learn all the things. It’s such a joy to be able to do both things throughout the day. And then we also have two puppies, which are still my loves too.

Dolly Delong: And you love ice cream,

Heather Leicy: Oh, for sure. I can’t believe I didn’t say that as like the first thing. I love it. I’ve had it today.

Dolly Delong: love that so much. Your daily doses of ice cream. Well, I Heather, it’s so good to have you on for those who are brand new to the systems of workflow, magic podcasts, like they might not have met you in another previous episode, but do you mind sharing a little bit about why you started your journey in teaching tax education to photographers. Cause I know like that is so different from wedding. And I forgot to mention earlier, Heather, you were such a talented senior photographer, by the way, I love following your work. But what got you started in that journey?

Because like taxes and the creative minded business owner, like that just doesn’t go together naturally.

Heather Leicy: And that is why I love teaching. Um, I have always had a love for numbers in school. Math was always my favorite subject. In college, I went for architecture, but I got a minor in photography and business. And so I’ve always just had, you know, This love of numbers, no matter what I did. And it wasn’t until I really got to working with my current CPA and just loving to figure out how to save money in my business, that I started to really find a joy in, in a sense, like I’m quoting air quotes here like beating the system of the government in how I can save as much money as possible because I already earned it.

Now I want to keep it in my bank account. And so through that, I also really started talking with other photographers and seeing that they don’t love doing it. And taxes are their least favorite thing that they have to worry about in a year. And so many of them wait until the last minute to do it. And so just through that and like my joy of knowing the numbers, I just want to change the perspective.

Effective of it for those creative minds that yes, you don’t have to love taxes. I’m not saying that I love paying taxes, but there’s a way to do it that you can just streamline a process that it’s already good for you to go throughout the year so that you already have the money set aside. So taxes can just be something that you do and it’s not something that you dread throughout your business.

Dolly Delong: I love that so much. And so, what I’m trying to like, gather, when was that point for you when you’re like, I I’m going to start creating, education about this because you know, there comes a point in time when people just come to you so much and you’re like I need to like, actually get paid to do this, but like, when was that point for you?

Heather Leicy: I in another life of my current life I’m also a co host of the Conquer Community. And it was actually through that, that it got started. We do bi weekly free calls. And I always became the person that answered all of the questions. For anyone that came we kind of like open it up as a round table style room where people could just come and ask whatever question they have about their business.

And anytime tax questions came up, I was always the person that hopped in to answer them. So that’s where it started. And then it slowly kind of started trickling into my own DMS on Instagram where people would reach out and that’s kind of where it just started building. And then I spoke about it at conquer live the past two years. And that really was when seeing people coming up and being like, I didn’t think I needed this class, but I really needed this class. That was like the kind of the seal of the envelope. okay, you need to teach people this because people want to know how to do it, but they dread it and they’re so afraid to take the first steps. 

Dolly Delong: And so that kind of like led to the genesis of you creating your course.  Can you tell us a little bit about your course?

Heather Leicy: Yeah. So the course is for beginner photographers. This is kind of for those people that haven’t been able to have QuickBooks or a CPA that they’re very close with. Now I’m saying this, you need a CPA. definitely have a CPA no matter what, but this is for you to be able to before you can bring on a bookkeeper that you know exactly how to prepare your taxes throughout the year.

So the course will break down everything you need to know as a photographer when it comes to taxes and being a small business owner but then it will also take it a step further and teach you a system that you can put in place in your own business so that you can get your numbers prepared. So when tax season comes around, all you have to do is send those numbers off to your CPA and you don’t feel like you’re scrambling at the end.

So I think I needed to clarify quickly at the beginning. Instead of Yes, have a CPA. This course is for before you can do QuickBooks or a bookkeeper. That’s what I meant to say.

Dolly Delong: Gotcha. No. So it’s for photographers who are in the beginning stages of their

Heather Leicy: Yes, 

Dolly Delong: essentially. That’s great. Okay. So listeners, you’re like, okay, is this conversation about taxes? What, what are we, where are we going? So I wanted to set the stage because Heather was coming in with all of this expertise and about something very specific.

She had a very ideal client in mind. And she knew her, her audience. She knew, what she wanted to do, and so this is why, she reached out to me because she wanted to have a launch strategy and a launch plan and start, getting in the cadence of priming her audience and getting ready to launch it and relaunch this specific course.

So this is why I wanted to ask her all of these questions, just to introduce to you, like what her area of expertise is. So Heather, I know you like talked about your photography course, but I wanted to start off with a fun question, but what is the name of your course? And why did you name it that?

Heather Leicy: So the course is called Make Taxes Suck Less, A Beginner’s Guide to Taxes. It was named this because basically exactly what the title says, I know for so many people taxes are not fun. And for so many people, it’s their least favorite thing in their business. And oftentimes it can be one of the things that make people kind of close the door on their business.

And that breaks my heart because if you can get a system set up, it doesn’t have to be that. So. Like I said before, I just want to make it so that you don’t hate taxes. So the course came to be Make Taxes Suck Less, so that you can do it and you can feel confident in what you’re doing, but you don’t hate it when it comes around.

Dolly Delong: Okay and so when you came to me, reached out to me initially, honestly, I was very surprised because I’m like, Heather, you’re already so organized and like, you have systems down for yourself. You really are have a very consistent cadence and everything and very professional as a business center.

But so what made you want to work with a launch strategist?

Heather Leicy: I’m glad you say this because maybe that’s just like a slight facade when it comes to launching. Whenever I launch something up until having Dolly working with me, I always just did it like the day before. And so anytime I was launching something, it would be that week that I was making the content to post for that day.

And so I was always scrambling so much. And so I knew this was something that I really wanted to go well. And I wanted people to know about it ahead of time. And so that I wasn’t stressed while I was getting ready to get into my fall season for photography. And so I knew I needed someone to come and walk alongside me and help me plan things ahead of time so that the launch could be as successful as it could be.

Oh, okay. So let’s break it down then. I know all the answers to this, but I’m just going to ask you questions. So when did we start working together? So we started officially at the end of June. We had a first call at the beginning of June, but like our time together really kicked off the last week of June.

Dolly Delong: Okay, so just to give everybody context Heather, wanted to launch this course initially in September. And so she backed up and thought, okay, I’m not, instead of releasing it the last week of August into September um, I’m going to, I’m going to work backwards. And so that’s when she reached out to me and she was very proactive.

She just didn’t like, I’m applaud her. because as creative business owners, like I’m a creative too. Like I am also a photographer. there is that temptation of wanting to like, throw something out there a week ahead and just be, You’re so excited. So you expect everybody else to be really excited.

And Heather, you were very disciplined and you’re like, okay, I have the long term vision for this course because it wasn’t just like a one and done launch thing. Like you have plans for this. So I’m not sure if you guys are familiar with this course to grow for the future, the longevity of it, which I love that you have longterm thinking for this course.

 So we, yeah, we started working together in June and essentially like I, we wanted to make sure that you all know this. If you’re OG listeners, you know, I love a good pre launch plan. I love when content is working together to grow out your email list. And it is working together to grow more brand awareness and more hype towards what you’re about to launch.

So essentially Heather, like in your own words, what was your experience like for the prelaunch? what did we lean into for you?

Heather Leicy: Yeah. So we leaned really hard into YouTube, which I had already started a channel, but we really focused all of those lessons leading up to it to be around the course when it was coming out. And then we also really leaned into Instagram Being on there and showing up and talking about taxes kind of really focused in on what was on the YouTube channel so that they could watch that and then start leading them towards when this course would be launched to.

Dolly Delong: And then as far as I know, this was in summer. So there is also the thought, cause I don’t really, I’m a mom, you’re a mom and we also run businesses, but we also want to have a cadence of, okay. Let’s enjoy the summer break. So I want you to give listeners like a realistic view. Like what did this look like for you?

were you like making it on the go every single week? how did you manage to create this really good long form content in the summer?

Heather Leicy: Okay. First off, Dolly is amazing because I could not have done this without her. All that I’m about to say is because Dolly helps

Dolly Delong: Oh, well, I did not pay. I did not pay Heather to

Heather Leicy: He deserves this.

Dolly Delong: Thank you. Thank you.

Heather Leicy: on our call, we kind of walked through the whole workflow and everything that would be needed for the nine weeks leading up to the launch day and that included like what I should talk about on YouTube, what the emails and blogs would look like that would tie into that YouTube video, what I should post on Instagram each day, both in posts and stories.

And so for me, I did the YouTube videos in two weeks. So it was two sittings. I recorded four of them one day and five of them another day and really just kind of like cranked them out. Now I’m not saying you needed to do that, but for me and my lifestyle and what was going on and vacations that we had I wanted to make sure I got my stuff to Dolly when I needed to.

And so I really cranked it out in two weeks. for all of it, which is amazing. I highly recommend, even though it sounds insanely crazy, prepare early and then just record in two days. And it was so nice to just be done for the next eight weeks. Like those YouTube videos were all created. And so it was amazing.

So that’s what we did for all of that. And then each week I would get My list of what I needed to post on Instagram and on that Monday I would work on what that week’s would be now I know some people probably could plan ahead of time But i’ve always been a person on instagram like I like it being Right then and there and as true to the date as it can be So I would always do it on mondays and then like plan for that week

Dolly Delong: I love that so much. I’m kind of the same way. I’m like, okay, it has to be exactly on this date and time. And it has to, I am a woman of just I don’t even know what, just. Yeah. Yeah. Very structure. So I love that. I love that so much. So I, like full transparency listeners, like if you’re like, wow, did Dolly do all the copy?

No, no, I am not a copywriter whatsoever. So the great thing about my launch packages is that they also include A copywriter and a copywriter strategist. And so we worked alongside Amanda Warfield. Um, I’ve had Amanda on the podcast before, and so we Basically what Heather and I did was we sat down at the very beginning of summer and we looked at like her goal.

Like we started with the end in mind. What was her goal? What is her ideal client? Who is this for? we dissected the heck out of, out of her offer I did not want Heather to do was just to present it on the end of August and be like, here, here’s a new course I have.

And that’s it. I wanted her to really prime, educate, prepare, and equip her ideal audience. so that they are more excited to buy by the end of summer. And also if they didn’t buy at the end of summer, then they would still be in our world. They would still look to Heather as the go to expert for tax education for photographers.

And then when they’re ready, they will buy because this is, this is a course that is now available in your shop. And so when we did that, we then brought in Amanda and she put on her. Amazing copywriter 

Heather Leicy: Amazing. 

Dolly Delong: and she dissected it. And she told literally broke every single week down for Heather.

So I do want listeners to know, like, I work alongside amazing copywriters, after the initial, okay, let’s do your launch strategy. Let’s see what works for you and your audience. And then I work alongside a copywriter in that. Honestly, but copywriting. I, I’m always like, how do they do that? How do copywriters wordsmith everything?

Cause I cannot wordsmith.

Heather Leicy: Nope. Me either. I hate words. That’s like my least favorite thing in this

Dolly Delong: I’m just like, I really try my hardest to like articulate exactly what I do and who it’s for and like how I can serve, but then it ends up being like a 30 mile long thesis and people fall asleep within seven seconds. I’m like, this is not helping anyone. And so in order to create a better experience for my clients, like I was like, I need a copywriter to work alongside us.

So that’s where Amanda came in and she definitely took over the copy portion, the messaging portion, Talk about your experience with messaging, because that’s always something that. Even for me, even though I know the importance of messaging and like who it’s for and how to articulate, did you struggle with your messaging?

 what, what was your journey like with your messaging for your, for your product?

Heather Leicy: I struggled hard. I am, honest truth here, hard. If anyone knows me, words are not my thing. Like spelling errors happen. Grammar isn’t the greatest. I have always struggled with it. I’ve always done it, but I know that it could be way better because like Dolly, I ramble and I don’t know how to like, Hit it with a punch kind of like I just kind of like state my thing and I don’t really talk about Like how it will impact you or how it can be transformational.

I just say oh, this is what I have period and so Bad don’t if you are like me Get a copywriter because 

Dolly Delong: And if you were like me, get a copywriter, listen to us.

Heather Leicy: you’ve learned anything today, get a copywriter if you’re like us. Yeah, I just sit in awe by copywriters because the way they can think up words or sayings that really, drive home what someone can get out of your course, it’s unbelievable.

I would read through what she would write for my emails and blogs and just be like, Like mouth dropped open shocked because it sounds so good. And I don’t know how to write it like that,

Dolly Delong: You’re like, yes, I’ll buy this.

Heather Leicy: I want that course. Oh wait, it’s my course.

Dolly Delong: Oh, wait a minute. I made it. That is so good. I’m glad that, so, Just like to reiterate, like you used, cause we started the summer. We’re like, okay, you knew the vision, you had the plan, you had the vision. It was just like articulating those steps through copy. And so that I’m glad to hear that, that extra service bonus of having that copywriter in the launch strategy package was good for you.

It’s always good to hear that’s a win. It was a win for you. 

Now that you’re on the other side of your launch, like this, because this was specifically your first big launch, correct?

Heather Leicy: Yep.

Dolly Delong: so from, you don’t have to do a scale or anything, but I’m just curious,what do you think of your first launch?

 how do you feel now that you have seen everything going into it? now that you’re on the other side?

Heather Leicy: Yeah. on my launch was way, way, way more thought out and hit more people in ways that I never would have thought of. even just the thought that you and Amanda thought of, abandoned cart and reaching out to people that didn’t come to the free class but could still get sold the course, and how to talk to them on YouTube, and what to put on the sales page.

If I had done it by myself, I would have launched it, but there would have been no follow ups. Because I just never thought about it, because I had never done anything like it. Like the only things I had sold previously were digital prints or like products in my shop. And with that, I’d only send one or two emails as just a little follow up.

There was no like long thought out thing that, or even just like the free class that I did beforehand leading up to it. Never would have had that in my like thought process of my launch strategy. And so looking back on it, I, I can’t recommend enough having someone if it’s your first time, especially because.

There’s just so many things that you guys thought of and had in place that I, I never would have had it in my strategy. And so not only what it was, was it incredible for this first launch, but it’s also set up and like ready for me to be able to use now that it’s evergreen, or if I decide to launch again in the future, I’m just blown away by all of it that was there. I just can’t even think of it.

Dolly Delong: Well, thank you so much. I, it was honestly so much fun, like from my perspective, from a launch strategist perspective, I have had clients who I sit down with them and I do a strategy session with them and I hand off the, essentially hand off the blueprint to them. And then they don’t do anything and then it’s just like, why aren’t you like you invested your time with me and now you should be at least like showing up or at least should be emailing your list and at least should be pre not pre selling, but at least priming your audience to get them excited about this.

And so I just want to applaud you, Heather, for being there. I don’t know if it’s a personality or I don’t know, I don’t know, but you were very excited about following through every single week and you, you stuck to the plan and you, I, it was like so much fun as a service provider for me to like work alongside you.

So I just want to say, thank you.

Heather Leicy: No, I want to say thank you! 

Dolly Delong: No, I want to 

Heather Leicy: a type A person and I told you and Amanda, if you give me a list of tasks that I need to do, I have to cross them off. I can’t skip it. I’ve always been that way, but I just need someone to tell me what it is that I need to do, because that’s where I struggled with.

I would just sit and look at a blank paper or, you know, in my head, be like, I don’t know what my next task is for a launch. I’ve never done this before, but having those checklists, I can hammer out some checklists when I need to check off, like that is satisfaction to me. So yeah, I, I can’t thank you guys enough for having those checklists and having the words that I couldn’t come up with.

And I, the launch went way better than I was thinking it was going to 

1.  

 

Dolly Delong: Well, I do want to ask you from, from now that you’re also on the other side and you have a lot of the assets done, cause that’s another thing that we worked on for your pre launch period. Like you were in the middle of creating this course from the ground up. And so what, what are some of the tasks that were helpful that we, me and Amanda did for you?

To help you in that course creation process. Cause like, honestly, again, like you were handling all of that very well, you were creating the course, you were you were sticking to a timeline, but how else did we help you out?

Heather Leicy: So One of the big things right at the beginning that was a huge help was catering all my other products in my shop to lead to the course, which I never would have once thought of, but like how you were able to make bundles with my other products and then the email sequences after it would talk about the course coming up and like now it talks about it as like an option for Those are things that I never would have thought about that kind of like I’ve heard it in a podcast before where it’s built the ladder for someone who’s a new client to okay, I bought this one at this ladder.

Oh, now I want to buy the next rung. Oh, and it like works them up to buying like the big course that you have. But those little things were huge. And then I think also with that is just what Appreciate it. questions I answered in my YouTube videos were really helpful that I got answers back from people that then I made sure I answered in the course even more if I didn’t go into that part as much because I didn’t think it was something that people were curious about or that they already knew about.

Sometimes I just assume that they knew more, but you’re Your YouTube videos or emails or blogs would bring me questions. And then I’d be like, Oh, someone really wants to know about this. Or several people do. I need to make sure in the course I’m answering it fully. Yep.

Dolly Delong: to why we did this this way, like with leaning into Heather’s YouTube, like content and leaning into just like making sure everything flows to her course, because honestly, I am a big believer that YouTube to go.

Is it, it works as a search engine, like it can work for you in an evergreen way. I’ve heard people describe it as having free employers for your business, working for you on YouTube to bring, as people are searching into Google or YouTube, because YouTube is essentially linked to Google, so they’re typing in like how to do this, how to learn something.

And for photographers, they might be typing in how, how to prepare for taxes as. A new photographer or like how to prepare for tax season as a photographer. And so we knew these are, and Heather knows, these are the types of questions that new photographers are asking about taxes. And so we’re like, let’s.

Let’s make YouTube work for you in the long run. And so I know that she is going to be getting even more people in specifically January, February, and March, because that’s when people are thinking about taxes. Are they thinking about taxes in July? No, like most likely not. They’re not thinking about that.

They’re thinking about something more immediate, like a new photographer is most likely thinking about something immediate, like that pertains to July. And they’re, they’re not thinking about tax strategy. They’re not thinking about like more advanced strategies. They’re just worried about how, how can I grow my business right now?

How can I get clients right now? So. We wanted to help Heather think long term and think of how can you help your, your potential students in a long term way in an evergreen way. So that’s why we had her create all of these videos and they were very bite sized. Like your videos weren’t necessarily 30 or 40 minutes.

They were like, Under 15 minutes, very actionable. And another thing I’m so glad you did was you had a call to action to grow your email list. Like very specific things like, Hey, download this. I’m just making this up like this, this template to help you with your taxes. I’m just making this up on the fly.

Oh, categories. You had this really good category freebie and you mentioned it in your videos. And then we made sure like, okay, we are growing your email list on an evergreen way, no matter what time of year a person lands on this video, they will grab that. And then there’ll be in your ecosystem. So we really wanted to help Heather focus in on.

Not only answering questions immediately, but in the longterm, and then also grow out her email list with very specific products, freebies that will lead to her products that will lead to her, like her big course, which is. Making taxes suck less for photographers. I love the name of your course, by the way. I love saying it. I wasn’t allowed to say that word growing up because I lived in such a like a PG family. And so like very like innocent. And so now I’m just like suck.

Heather Leicy: I’m glad I could help you with that.

Dolly Delong: I love it. People are like, oh my gosh, Dolly. But. But I just wanted to like, give you all just the strategy, the method behind the strategy, and I am a firm believer like this, her YouTube channel is going to be working for her, and And Heather is also very she, she is in her lane. It’s not like she’s adding like new topics to her expertise.

It’s not like, like, she’s like, Oh, I’m also an SEO expert. And now I am a Pinterest expert. And now I’m like, she has been a wedding photographer, senior photographer, and then she has grown to be this. Tax expert for photographers, which is so like very specific. And so that I’m so excited that you have leaned into YouTube and like, this is going to be a good strategy for you for your future launches, because you can continue to create content that photographers are searching for, and then you can insert whatever call to action to lead to your email list, which will lead to your courses.

Is. 

Heather Leicy: Isn’t it so nice how it works that way? Which

Dolly Delong: so exciting!

Heather Leicy: I have to thank Dolly for. Like y’all, she’s not giving herself credit. She is amazing. And some of those things that she said that I did, she was the one who was in my ear being like, Hey, you should talk about your freebie this many, like in this one, every single time.

Dolly’s amazing y’all. She’s not going to tell it, but she is.

Dolly Delong: well thank you so much. Well, it was so much fun and I will also give credit to Amanda because once we figured out the strategy of, okay, this is when Heather is gonna promote this freebie and then this freebie, then Amanda took that and she created this amazing email funnel for you. That was very strategic and again, that is just the power of working together as a team and like making sure.

Everything has. Is a puzzle piece like to serve you very well. And so I’m so excited To have built this momentum for you. And so now that Essentially it has been built out What are your plans for the future because if it were up to me i’d be like heather you’re gonna You’re gonna relaunch this Every year, like my, my goal for you, I’m just going to say it out loud.

My goal for you is to launch this every spring, because I believe a new photographer is only thinking about taxes in the spring when April comes up. So like to, to really bring more awareness to photographers by like. February, March of the latest, maybe a February. So it gives them time to consume the product to be tax ready and confident.

And so I’m like, Heather, you should do this. Every spring. So my question for you is what are your goals with this course now that it’s all been built out.

Heather Leicy: so I’m planning to launch it with all, as long as nothing goes wrong uh, in February. So it will be launched again then for the exact reason that you said, that is when people are thinking about it. And In a sense, kind of getting really worried about taxes. And so I really want to just be there as a helping hand when they get to that point.

And they get to the point of Oh my gosh, I have no idea what to do. Oh my goodness. I didn’t get any of my numbers ready. This can be a stepping stone to help them get their stuff ready. And then as they move past tax season, that they Start for the whole year, getting it ready so that they don’t ever have to have that.

Ah, again, when tax season comes around. So for sure coming February, but like you mentioned, I’m thinking it will be like a yearly thing just so that if there’s someone new coming in and they need help, they can always just hear about this course uh, get the help they need and then get their system set up so that it’s streamlined and not a panic at the next time it comes around.

Dolly Delong: love it so much. And this is me just being curious. are there constant updates to taxes that you’re going to have to update your course? Or did you, because I was on the back end of your course. Like I saw it from start to finish consumed it because I, if I am going to be hired to do a launch strategy, I’m like, I’m going to dissect everything.

And you all like Heather answered every. Single question to the point of, I was like, wow, I didn’t know this. I’m going to file this back in my, my brain for my own photography business to share with my bookkeeper. But I, I was just curious, like, how do you plan on adding updates or do you need to add updates?

because it’s very robust. Yes.

Heather Leicy: the hope of how it’s laid out is that it doesn’t need changes every year. There are some times that things will change. And like in 2025, one of the things that is talked about in the course is Gets changed. And so I mentioned that so that you knew what it was in 2024. And then you also knew what it was in 2025, but I made sure that the course was created to be an overall understanding of taxes and not specific to each state.

Each state is where all of those like little changes can be happening, not even yearly, but even less than that. And so that, Is where you should be talking with your CPA that you’re working with because they’re going to know the updates immediately And for every single state and every single municipality like they’re the ones to go to for those questions This course is just like the overall understanding of what the IRS requires What you should know as a small business owner and then if changes that are very dramatic happen I’ll make sure to update that when it comes up

Dolly Delong: I love it. Can I also point out Heather that I loved that you did not place so much pressure on yourself for this course because you have other streams of income like you did not neglect your other clients during this launch period because I have noticed like I, I am Listeners, I study other businesses very intently, like during their own launch processes, or I am a professional observer, I’ve deemed myself because I observe that when a person, when a business owner wants to launch something, they neglect, it’s like everything else in their life drops.

I have observed that a lot of business owners are like. stressed out about not making money during their launch period because they’re, they’re dropping the ball in serving their one to one clients or their other money making services. because that wasn’t the case, like for my observation, that was not the case for you because you were still showing up and serving your wedding clients.

Your senior clients and your, like other, I didn’t know if you had any one-to-one clients through Conquer, but like you were still making money during this time. So like how, like for you, Heather, how did you do it? I’m just like curious because how I want listeners to know, like they can still map and plan out a launch, execute a launch while still making money.

everything doesn’t have to pause for a launch.

Heather Leicy: Yeah, I think I think there’s two things. One, being able to have that document of all the tasks that I needed to get done ahead of time, like that I needed to have done by X date for the launch was really helpful that I could focus on it. Tuesdays were my days that I worked on launch stuff kind of leading up to once we got really close, then I would do a lot more like several days a week.

But leading up to it at the beginning, Tuesdays were my day. And so that was when I would record or that was when I would write something or make a story for what I needed to. And so that allowed me that I could be fully focused on that day. And then the other days I could still be able to kind of turn off that switch slightly and then be able to be there for my wedding and senior clients or whatever was happening, conquer stuff that was going on.

So that was really helpful. But then the other side is Amanda, who we mentioned as the copywriter, she did a really good job that. Even when I was posting something in Instagram, maybe about taxes, I would still be using like a background behind the scenes reel of me shooting a wedding. And so my wedding clients were still seeing me actively working and doing stuff.

But the point of it when you actually read through the caption was about taxes. And so it was like this nice meld where I could do that for those posts, but then also make sure I. I had posts for taxes every day, Monday to Friday. Sometimes I would add in, if I had a shoot, I would always make sure to put my sneak peeks up.

But then Saturday and Sunday I would do posts that were not tax related. That was something about my clients for my photography side. So that I was always speaking to them at least twice a week if everything else was on taxes.

Dolly Delong: Yeah, that totally makes sense because I want, I really want to hit home the point like listener if you are like, okay, I’m thinking about launching, but I’m known for this one thing. But then I don’t want to confuse my clients. And then they think, Oh, I’m only doing this now. Because Heather is yeah.

She’s multi passionate andshe’s very talented. She’s serving a very specific group for her wedding. Like she has her clients nailed in. She has her clients nailed in for senior. Like she has a good roster for both, but then she’s also positioning herself as the go to tax expert for photographers.

So we were also like strategizing, okay, how can we continue to position her to be that expert without confusing her audience? And so there is this we, we had to do it very strategically and weave that into our content because we didn’t want her clients to be like, Oh, are you not doing this anymore?

Like I’m confused. And so. I think you did it beautifully, and I like, I still think you should continue to position yourself as the go to tax expert. I’ve been like, Heather will tell you guys, I’m like, Heather, talk about tax education, because you’re amazing. But you can talk about, what you are known for, if you’re multi passionate,

Heather Leicy: hmm. Mm

Dolly Delong: those, Areas are bringing an income for you.

You’re known for those areas. talk about those three areas or two areas. If, and if it makes sense, again, this is my opinion. I’d like that you have one Instagram. So it’s not like you’re not all over the place and versus me. I have two Instagrams because one is launch education, systems education.

And then another is family photography. Cause I learned. My families were getting confused by systems education. They’re like, we just want photos. we just, we don’t want launching education. We don’t know what launching is. And so, I guess if you’re listening in, do your due diligence and see if you have to separate it or if you can keep it together and still weave in your expertise for What you’re known for.

And Heather has done that beautifully. And so if I’m just trying to think of a listener might be thinking like, Oh, but I don’t want to confuse people. You can still like, it’s just about positioning and copy and just like how you show up. So anyways, I hope that was like, made sense.

Heather Leicy: I think a good example of it is like, for a story, if I’m traveling for a wedding, like a destination wedding, which I had one during this launch, I would post that I’m traveling for a wedding, but then I would also say, oh, I’m flying, or this is my hotel room, oh, that’s a tax write off, so like, Hit for both that.

Ooh, someone got excited because I was going to a destination wedding. So they’re going to pay attention to want to see sneak peeks from that wedding. But the photographer who’s watching can be like, Oh, she wrote off or her flight or her hotel. I need to make sure I do that too. So it’s like sneaky ways that you can do both of them.

If, if they align, but you’re so right, make sure that they align and that you’re not like grabbing for straws, grasping for straws. I’m really bad with sayings. One of those two. 

Dolly Delong: okay, so Heather, I know we’ve been chatting a lot about your launch experience and just like what your journey was like working with me and working with Amanda.

Do you, as we like wrap up what advice What advice would you give to other course creators like yourself who are like, again, multi passionate, but they are also wanting to create a course. They want to launch it very intentionally. let’s say they’re on the fence about working with a launch planner.

What would you, what would you say to them?

Heather Leicy: If it’s your first time, even if it’s not, and you haven’t done a full blown out launch for a course, and you’ve, like I mentioned, done that small little one, only two weeks before, or one week before, I integrator, because there’s so much Not only are they going to help you plan it and that you can feel not stressed when it comes around But like I mentioned they’re going to find things that you may not have even thought of adding into it That’s going to help someone through the process of wanting to purchase And I think my biggest advice is think of it for the long game maybe your first launch isn’t out of the water.

You’re making thousands of dollars and crazy, but I’m so glad that I did it on this first one because I have the copy now that I never would have thought of that’s really selling it, even while it’s on evergreen now, so that I’m not trying to figure that stuff out. After the first launch was done, everything’s already set up for me.

And so that now I can just go in and tweak things as need be, or when I’m ready to do a full launch, I have the bones already set up. So yes, it may not be that your first launch is, Oh my gosh, I can quit my day job if you have a day job, but maybe it is that, which would be fantastic. But even if it’s not.

Think of that long game because at that point, that makes the money that you’re paying right now way worth it when everything’s set up for you so that it can just keep working in the background.

Dolly Delong: Well, I, thank you for your kind words, by the way, I loved, absolutely loved working with you and it was an honor that you entrusted me with your time and like your course and I’m so excited to watch it grow every year when you launch every February. When you launch, you’re like, okay, Dolly, calm down.

No, but seriously, I’m really excited to watch it impact future photographers to learn, be more tax confident in their business. So Heather do you mind sharing with listeners how they can find you work with you and Hey, let’s pitch your course because this, this episode comes out in 2025. Yeah, so you guys have, you guys can now like if you want to buy Heather’s course or wait for her to launch it, cause anyways. Heather, talk more about your, your course and you.

Heather Leicy: So if you want to connect, you can find me at heather. marie. licy, l e i c y. That’s where you can see the photography and taxing. Instagram account that we were talking about. And then you can go to my website, which is heathermlphoto. com. And there’s a section just for photographers where you can find this course, plus other products that I have all around taxes.

If you just need help getting started, but that’s it. The make taxes suck Lord course is on there. If you’re a photographer that’s just getting started and you’re not ready to dive in with a bookkeeper yet, this course can be the thing that can really set you up for success, that you can get a streamlined process and really transform tax season from being the scary thing to something that you have control over and confidence over.

When you’re working with your CPA. So if you’re interested in that you can find it there, but also if you just want a little bit more one on one and really hone in on like a unique situation that you’re in, or you want the system kind of set up for you. I do also offer one on one um, days where you can work with me.

We’ll get a system set up specifically for your business uh, so that all you have to do is just input the numbers and you don’t have to create the system. So either option is there on that page if you want to connect more.

Dolly Delong: Awesome. Heather, thank you so much again for coming on and listeners. I will put everything in the show notes. So that way you can get connected with Heather and get, if you’re a photographer and you’re wanting to create a system for the taxes of your business, like You, you need to check out this course.

Seriously, seriously, Heather. Thank you so much and everyone. Thank you for staying all the way through. If you had any aha moments in this episode, feel free to DM me or DM Heather and let us know just like what takeaways you loved specifically about this episode. Have a streamlined and magical week.

You amazing muggle you. I will talk to you all next week with a brand new systems and workflow episode. Bye.